Thursday 22 November 2007

West End, West Hampstead, Fortune Green

The top corner of Camden is the ward of Fortune Green, previously the ward of West End - it's a lovely part of the borough and in broad terms the area is framed by Cricklewood, Kilburn High Road/Shoot Up Hill and Finchley Road.

It's represented by Lib Dem Cllrs Flick Rea, Russell Eagling and Jane Schopflin and is home to Hampstead School (of which I am a Governor), Hampstead Cemetery (the early 19th century overflow from Hampstead Parish Church), West Hampstead Community Centre, the UCS playing fields and Fortune Green itself.

The Green running along Fortune Green Road is a great open space with a play area which hosts the Jester festival each year. A group of residents wanting to get improvements in the local area have called a small meeting to push for local improvements. I think it's a really good initiative and can only enhance what is great open space.

Flick and I have met on several occasions to discuss small improvements and indeed further down Fortune Green Road, on the corner of West End Lane and Mill Lane there is another green space with a lovely old water fountain just by Emmanuel Church, Lyncroft Gardens (Flick and I pictured talking about one of the many clean-ups we have pushed for).

I'm a member of the Friends of Hampstead Cemetery - it's a great place to wander around, serene, peaceful and curiously amusing: I particularly like the gravestone of Charles Cowper Ross, which reads:
What will be said,
When I am dead,
Of what I used to do?
They liked my smile?
I failed with style?
Or, more than likely, "Who?"

And of course the actress Gladys Cooper is buried there which is a particular interest of mine...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who was Gladys Cooper?
Des.

Anonymous said...

Biug big actress in the edwardian/20's
Oscar winner
begat the morley clan as in robert morley and sheridan morley
seriously famours of her day...